A Truly Interesting Week!

A quiet start to the week saw a very interesting second half as February passed the halfway point.

Sunday saw me continue my tradition of watching the Super Sunday games with the the final game seeing Fulham salvage a draw away to United which was ironic after the years of 'Fergie Time' that United took wins from but aside from that another brilliant episode of Top Gear with an interesting drama called Babylon ended the night.

Monday began with the dispatching of my first sale of 2014 and in the afternoon I went on a nice two and a half hour walk with and friend to catch up and in the evening took in the usual Monday corrie with the long-awaited return of The Walking Dead being perfect way to end the night alongside some GTA V.

Tuesday saw me make a second visit in four days to watch Skem United and this time it was in the Liverpool Senior cup against Southport but despite leading three times they were pegged back in the final minutes and went into penalties after a 3-3 draw but in sudden death they missed and lost 5-4 in what was only the second time I had seen a defeat as a spectator with the first also being in the same competition back in 2010.

Wednesday saw a very early wake up in order to watch Wigan play a warm-up game against the NZ Warriors and it was a brilliant performance that saw them win 46-24 in good preparation for the WCC on the 22nd. An afternoon of writing led into a night of football which saw Liverpool claim a last-gasp 3-2 win over Fulham.

Thursday was just a typical day of writing, gaming, and job searching that was until 8.12pm when I received a message on a dating site I was on, it seems i had accidentally sent an invite to my entire contact list and I had a reply from my ex girlfriend, the one from America who had I not heard from properly for five years. We re-connected and she went on to say that she wanted to show my how she had changed through learning about religion but mainy it was nice to have a hurt from the past explained for some closure.

Friday began with the same conversation from the previous night and then off to bed, the afternoon saw more writing and a stellar performance from Lizzy Yarnold taking GB's first gold at Sochi while also watching the curling. Later in the evening alongside my usual Friday evening TV, i had a voice call with Jessica as we talked through some things before the night went into Saturday.

A lie in on Saturday meant I missed Soccer Am for the first time in ages but in the afternoon more curling from Sochi and an afternoon chat with Jessica followed by the Splash final and Take Me Out. However, as the evening went on I began to feel a bit ill both in my head and abdomen but could not place why until at just before midnight into Sunday.

The ill feeling intensified at about 12.30 am while talking via voice call with Jessica as her teachings of religion or what she called God's truth turned from just talking to her trying to force me to believe that what I had lived for 26 years was all a lie and false.This saw me begin to think that the reason I didn't feel right was because of this so I told her that I wasn't going further into what she had to say and the more I explained it, the more I began to feel calmer.

I think it was because my mind was telling me that what i was hearing and reading was not what it wanted and though the scary thought of salvation that she preached will remain with me, it was not worth discussing if it meant I was unwell. She got upset but in two ways, one because her teachings got more forceful and secondly because her personal feelings were still there, the conversation ended with her saying this "Then I wash my hands of you and shake the dust of my feet of you. For you are unworthy of God Almighty because for a morsel of meat you are willing to give up your birthright. You will burn in the lake of Fire and you are headed for Hell when the day of judgement comes." I could not think of a way to reply to that so left it there, after five years of waiting to maybe speak to her again it lasted barely three days which was sad but if fate deems it so then so be it.

 After some sleep after being up until past 4am, I returned to GTA V to finally get to 100% and watched Everton v Swansea and Arsenal v Liverpool while gaming but the latter saw Liverpool lose 2-1 and go out of the FA Cup despite the prospect of a Merseyside derby in the next round. The week came to a close with me reaching 100% on GTA V after a massive effort and the latest episode of Top Gear which focused on a trip to Chernobyl which is still scary to see and think of after such a long time. 

So a really interesting week overall that included a pickup in fitness off the back of Monday's walk of four miles and the trip to watch Skem on Tuesday of three miles. Gaming wise, with the push on GTA V the achievement chase slowed a touch but a milestone was hit as for only the second time in six and a half years of 'Xboxing', I hit a streak of 50 consecutive days of achievement unlocking with the best being my 59 from last year which will be hopefully near being beaten by the time of next week's update.

As the month ends in a Friday, the next update will be this Sunday with the final week having two posts - the monthly summary and the weekly one which will end with my 27th Birthday. This week will see all of my teams play in the space of two days with Wigan early on Saturday, Skem at home in the afternoon with Liverpool rounding it off the following afternoon with hopefully some success on the job front too.

Sporting Success Ends With Family Meal

As I have had a busy weekend, the weekly blog for the past week spans a full week rather than the usual Saturday-Friday and culminated with a lovely family meal after a day of success for two of my teams.

Last Saturday saw a catch up of writing having got home late on the Friday from St Helens and during the day I completed the monthly summaries after a what was a superb January but but the start of February a bit behind.

Sunday saw Liverpool lead West Brom 1-0 until a Toure mistake led to an Anichebe leveller which was disappointing after what was a decent performance but my mood improved immensely with the return of Top Gear which saw me in hysterics for most of the show with the highlight being the mad dash through a supermarket that saw both Richard Hammond and Jeremy Clarkson smash into shelves with hilarious results and ended the night watching the Superbowl and tipped Seattle.

Monday began with the Superbowl reaching its climax and a good start as my bet on Seattle was successful in a stunning 43-8 win over favourites Denver which ended at 4am so a lie in in the morning and the day was spent gaming, blogging and job searching.

Tuesday featured more gaming and the beginning of my setup for the upcoming Super League season with the preview and the magnets created while Wednesday started with me having to disassemble my Xbox 360 as something had got stuck in the fan but after a a good clean, I noticed the thermal paste has all but dissolved so had to make my own with a recommended recipe which worked a treat as the system is working better than it has for a long time.

Later on, I added to my SL blog and took in a strange but interesting docu-series on BBC3, Extreme Beauty Queens which continued the trend of first episode success on BBC3, a channel I have watched more documentaries on that any other based solely from liking the first episode.

Thursday saw a trip out for a walk having been a sort of 'shut in' since Friday and had a gaming afternoon. Friday saw me go to Super League opener as Wigan took on Huddersfield but sadly a mixed performance saw a 24-8 loss but it was nice to return to the DW after the last visit in September and with a month until the next visit due to the WCC in Australia. It was nice to see the same faces sat alongside me for the fourth year in a row as it is always great to have such vocal supporters as myself in close comfort.

Returning to the DW also meant a return visit to my favourite take-away - Sicily Pizza in Wigan where I have a matchday ritual of a post-match kebab and as always it was excellent and after getting home, I caught up with an old friend over Facebook, which was nice to re-connect.

Saturday saw a quick trip to the Concourse to withdraw my monthly rent and later on watched a stellar Liverpool performance as they hammered Arsenal 5-1 and half and hour later, I went to watch Skem at home to Buxton in the first home game since-mid January due to postponements and another good performance meant that I kept up my record of never seeing Skem lose at home this season after a 2-0 victory.

 Later in the evening, I went to a Portuguese restaurant in Ormskirk called Piri-Piri for my cousin's 18th and it shows just how quickly time has flown and after a brilliant meal with the family I got home just before midnight to end a very busy couple of days after a quiet first half of the week.

Jan Moves Into Feb

A mixed first month of the year sets the pace for what I hope will be as good as 2013 with a few exceptions of course.

Fitness wise, a slow start has seen me step up my fitness routine with the use of Xbox Fitness but my decline in waking has meant I end the month without a overall loss of weight which is one of the first things I will focus on in February.  The lack of fitness is clear in the fact that using my GPS app, I only recorded 18 miles which is the equivalent of a working week from 2013 and resulted in only 32,817 Nikefuel being earned which is terrible after the heights of over 100,000 last January.

Career wise, I am still out of work but have had an interview which sadly didn't lead to a job at Euromedia in Chorley which was a good experience doing something new in a new place and means for a future chance somewhere else I now will know how to improve and maybe get back into the working world. Another rejection came from an application in the final week of the month but I am confident that this time next month I will have some success.

The Xbox achievement chase saw a superb month that set a new record as the best ever January and was the first one to go over a century of unlocks by reaching 158 achievements and means that I have done more in one month than I did in the first five of 2013.

I earned 4991 TA points which was achingly close to a milestone of 5000 and was equally close to a milestone of 3000G with a haul of 2920G. This has been able mainly with all the free time but also with the rotation of games rather than sticking to a one for a long period of time like I did last year.

My main goals of 5000 unlocks and 100,000G are surely doable this year in what is my seventh year since beginning 'xboxing' in July 2007.

Sports-wise, Skelmersdale ended the month still atop the NPL but with a mixed month that saw them lose away to title rivals Chorley and due to poor weather have not played since but began the month with some good results against Ilkeston, Whitby and Marine. Wigan finished a perfect pre-season with a win over Saints after wins over Leigh and London Skolars with a minor negative being the postponement of Prescott's testimonial against Workington.


Liverpool are still in contention at the top of the Premier League after an unbeaten month with the highlights being the 5-3 win at Stoke and the 4-0 win in the Merseyside Derby and are in the FA Cup fifth round after victories over Oldham and Bournemouth so a good month overall for my teams.

 On the subject of my goals for 2014, I completed two which were finishing the 2014 EPL sticker album which I did on the 9th and can be seen in the adjacent video and setting a new record on my highest winning bet with a win of £104.90 across the weekend of the 11 and 12th toppling the previous record of £80 and was even better because it featured wins for both Liverpool and Skem.

Derby Win Completes Week

As February begins, it does with a perfect ending to the final week of January with a week of sport and gaming.


Saturday began well with Liverpool securing a place in the FA Cup fifth round with a 2-0 win over Bournemouth but suffered a small blow as I missed the chance to watch Skem at home after the game was postponed due to poor weather.

Sunday featured a gaming afternoon alongside the FA Cup football including nearing the end of the story on Rayman Legends and an interesting FA Cup draw which pitted Liverpool with an away trip to Arsenal and put Man City and Chelsea together.

Monday began with the booking of my third consecutive trip to the Magic Weekend in May which this year sees me take in four games on one day for the bargain price of £25 with transport included.

As it was the fourth week of my sleep and leisure cycles, designing and printing for the next month took up a good part of the afternoon but a problem appeared when a paper and carriage jam rendered the printer unusable and as it was nine years old, there was no way of repair as the model was no longer available.

Tuesday saw an early trip to the Concourse to collect a new printer which was an HP Envy 4502 for £70 but with £20 in vouchers it made the purchase easier on my spending for the month and during the afternoon, I tested the various modes and was able to print the new design of magnets for the upcoming RL and F1 seasons. The evening saw a stunning Merseyside Derby with a 4-0 Liverpool win which was made sweeter by mixed results for rivals at the top of the league.

Wednesday had an early blow as I missed out on tickets for the Liverpool v Swansea game meaning an extended wait for my first home game of the season since the August testimonial, and caught up on some writing in the evening while watching the football highlights.

Thursday saw the weekly trip for the Advertiser and some further job searching while awaiting replies from the previous week's applications and sorting through my unlabelled DVD's from the December VHS transfers and caught up on Liverpool highlight transfers with a return to Xbox Fitness in the afternoon including some personal bests.

Friday saw me do my weekly washing and drying but a sad end to the morning as I received a letter saying I had been unsuccessful in one of my job applications which was a shame as it was a job that was in Skelmersdale meaning travel wouldn't have been a problem but will have to keep trying.

In the early evening I set out for my first Warriors away trip of the year to St Helens for the James Roby Testimonial. It was a night of firsts as I made my first ever train journey to St Helens and first solo train travel for a so long that I can't remember the last time. A brilliant game saw Wigan win 28-16 and mean at the second attempt I had been there for a win at Langtree Park and sets me up perfectly for the start of the Super League next Friday.

Overall, a decent week that had a perfect ending and also saw me get to 1400 views across my blogs putting me at 15,500 overall and in gaming terms, I set my best ever January with a haul of 158 unlocks including 39 for the week.


Next week sees the move into February still out of work but with the start of the Super League season at home to Huddersfield and hopefully a good weekend for my other teams while I hope to continue my good gaming streak of success.